The CAD/CAM user has a significant influence on the economic success of a manufacturing company. Coscom, the digitization specialist in machining production, has recognized this development in CAD/CAM programming and is following the trend of process-oriented CAD/CAM systems with its ProfiCAM VM solution.

The Coscom ECO system in conjunction with tool management, production data management and general data networking modules to peripheral systems in production (machine controls, presetting devices, storage systems, etc.) or leading data systems (ERP, PLM, MES, etc.) forms the perfect data platform for CAD/CAM systems. Many innovative integration solutions for various CAD/CAM applications in the Coscom ECO system are already demonstrating a new perception in the industry. The CAD/CAM user within the Coscom ECO system is developing into a genuine process designer. During programming, the user can access important information. For example, the equipment of the selected NC production machine with standard tools is an important aspect in order to avoid producing NC programs with the maximum number of tool set-up operations. Complete tool lists can be adopted from similar components, when assembling a new complete tool in CAM programming, the user is made aware of similar assembly instructions for complete tools, etc. - all this leads to a reduction in the variety of complete tools and thus prevents set-up times before they are actually created. Even availability problems of tool components can be taken into account during NC programming and appropriate alternatives can be used.

Christian Erlinger, member of the Coscom management board: "The continuous improvement of information and data processes in CNC production is the daily incentive in the Coscom software development departments!" © COSCOM Computer

"Coscom's own CAD/CAM system ProfiCAM VM is of course the gold standard for integration into the Coscom ECO system. During the further development of ProfiCAM VM, the Coscom development department placed a new focus on process control in CAD/CAM programming," says Christian Erlinger, member of the management team at Coscom. In a nutshell: "The actual NC programming process is analyzed or controlled little or not at all today. Are the most effective CAM technologies being used? Is the CAD/CAM programming time in proportion to the spindle running time on the machine? These are questions that naturally make you take another look at a CAD/CAM system.

When ProfiCAM VM is used within the Coscom ECO system, the necessary data is automatically transferred from the CAM system to the data platform. An analysis of the CAM technologies used in the CAM projects can provide information on whether similar program sequences are created for different CAM users. It is also possible to check whether the optimum CAM technologies are being used for certain tasks. Similarly, the theoretical NC program runtimes are pushed into the data platform in order to compare the CAD/CAM programming time spent with the actual throughput time on the CNC machine. In single part production for so-called "short runners", it quickly becomes apparent that too much time may be spent meticulously optimizing tool paths and that the ratio of the time invested at the CAD/CAM workstation to the throughput time at the CNC machine is therefore very poor. This is an aspect that is not even covered by modern MES systems today and yet also has a high potential for increasing efficiency. In short: ProfiCAM VM within the Coscom ECO system provides an additional view of optimization potential in CNC production without additional effort in CAD/CAM programming.